


Becalmed In Space

by badly_knitted



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Biology, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Future, Community: spook_me, Drama, Established Relationship, Immortality, Immortals, M/M, Monsters, Outer Space, Problems, Spaceships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 22:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16417490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: The Happy Wanderer is drifting, powerless, in space. Jack and Ianto must figure out what’s wrong and fix it, but they’re in for an unpleasant surprise.





	1. Adrift

**Author's Note:**

> Written for: spook_me 2018, using Torchwood, Monster From Space.
> 
> Set in my Ghost of a Chance 'verse.

So here they were, powerless and going precisely nowhere. It was inconvenient, certainly, but not cause for alarm just yet. Spaceships didn’t lose power for no reason though, so obviously there was a fault somewhere in the main propulsion engines. Just a short time ago the ship had been travelling at sub-light speeds, approaching a system of three planets orbiting a red dwarf star, but now it was more of less dead in the water, or more accurately, dead in space. 

Internal power was usually supplied as a by-product of the engines. It took surprisingly little energy to run the essential systems: the artificial gravity, air circulation and reclamation, lighting, heat, food storage, waste recycling, and the control panel electrics. The first auxiliary generator had kicked in when the engines had cut out, and they had plenty of power cubes to run it, and it’s two failsafe backups, for several months if necessary. Not that either Jack or Ianto believed it would come to that. Spaceships were designed with enough redundancies and backup systems that any problem short of them blowing up could be solved readily enough by the crew. All it took was time and materials.

Right now it was simply a case of finding out exactly what and where the fault was before they got on with the task of fixing it. Their cargo hold was full of spare parts for every onboard system, and with raw materials for use in the machine shop; they could replace, make, or repair just about any part they might need. It was nothing they hadn’t done before during their travels together.

For this trip Jack and Ianto had taken the Happy Wanderer far out onto the galaxy’s rim to chart an as yet unexplored sector, so they’d stocked up on everything they might need before leaving inhabited space. Ianto had been very thorough, making lists and checking them several times to make sure they didn’t forget anything important. So thorough in fact that the backups to their backups had backups! Jack had laughed at that but Ianto, who never failed to think ahead, had just shrugged and said it never hurt to be prepared. When they got back to known space they’d be able to sell off anything they didn’t use for a healthy profit. Such items were always in demand among the planets out on the rim because so few ships travelled out that far.

Way out here in the unknown, where the stars were widely scattered, planets of any description were few and far between, and inhabited worlds even more so. Despite having been exploring the region for almost seven weeks Jack and Ianto had yet to find life of any description, or even a world where life could potentially develop. There were asteroids aplenty, teeming with all kinds of valuable minerals, but the closest thing to life they’d found so far was a desolate world which their instruments indicated had, at some point probably millions of years in its past, been home to a thriving ecosystem. Some kind of natural disaster, possibly a long ago collision with a rogue comet, had obliterated all life, leaving behind just a barren, pitted globe orbiting its sun. Given the conditions there, it was unlikely new life would ever evolve; the planet was about as dead as it was possible to get. Still, that made it a good candidate for terraforming and since they were the ones who’d found it and charted its position they’d get commission on any deal that was made for it. If they ever got back to tell anyone about it.

Although their ship was powerless and drifting on the currents of space, Jack and Ianto were in no immediate danger; at their current negligible speed the system they were approaching was still a couple of weeks distant, even if inertia kept them moving in its general direction. With the engines out they were making very little headway, and if worst came to worst, the manoeuvring thrusters would probably be enough to steer them away from danger. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean they could just sit around doing nothing about their situation. They had repairs to make and the sooner they got started, the sooner the job would be done and they could continue with their explorations

“Right, better get suited up,” Ianto said, leading the way to the spacesuit locker nearest to one of the engine access tubes. There were several such lockers situated throughout the ship, each containing two full suits with rechargeable internal power packs and built-in air supplies, readily available in case of a hull breach. Deflector shields knocked away most space debris before it had a chance to get anywhere near the hull, but occasionally something would slip through and punch a small hole, causing depressurisation and a loss of atmosphere so it was important to have ready access to emergency gear no matter where in the ship you happened to be. 

“I’ll take a tool kit and universal scanner and have a look. You suit up but stay here; that way once I get some idea of what the problem is you can fetch whatever replacement parts are needed and bring them with you.”

It was a sensible plan, but then Ianto’s plans were usually grounded in common sense. That didn’t mean Jack had to like it though.

“I should go…” he started.

“Why? You went first last time, which means it’s my turn. Besides, I’m just as immortal as you are; the Doctor confirmed it. We’ll be in contact the whole time, and you should be able to see everything I see through the helmet cameras.” The cameras were a new addition to their equipment and this would be the first time using them in an emergency situation, but they’d checked out fine on several trial runs while Ianto and Jack had been giving the ship a thorough going over before embarking on this trip. Ianto didn’t foresee any problems.

“Fine,” Jack grudgingly agreed. “Just keep your mic open and talk to me, okay? We’re a very long way from any kind of assistance, just the two of us in the middle of nowhere, so if you run into any trouble, come straight back.”

“Yes, mother.” Ianto rolled his eyes. “Now help me suit up and then I’ll help you.” 

It wasn’t that either of them really needed assistance, the suits were designed so that they could easily be put on in a hurry and without help, but when they had the time they preferred to double check each other, a holdover from the days when suits were big and clunky, with all kinds of padding and internal servo-motors. These days they were formfitting, and made of a thin, highly flexible material so dense that it was stronger than eight-inch think armour plating. There was a lightweight breather unit on the back, connected to an equally lightweight helmet by narrow hoses made of the same material as the rest of the suit. Gravity boots held the wearer to any surface, metallic or not, and a laser cutter, a versatile tool that could double as a weapon in a pinch, was clipped to a belt at the waist. The only thing about the new suits Ianto wasn’t too keen on was that the internal power pack was situated on the chest and while it wasn’t horribly bulky, it did make it look like he had a bust. That had been a bit disconcerting at first, but having worn the suits on quite a few occasions by now he’d got so he hardly noticed it anymore.

Suiting up took less than five minutes even with double-checking all systems were fully operational. Ianto pulled a tool kit and a universal scanner out of the locker and checked them over too before making his way to the airlock that led into the portside engine access tube. Hopefully the warning lights on the control board in the cockpit were right and whatever fault had caused the engines to shut down was on this side. If it wasn’t he’d have to come back out and go up and over the engine housing to the access tube on the starboard side, which would be a pain in the neck.

The access door hissed open and Ianto stepped through into the airlock as Jack manually shut and secured it behind him. He waited patiently while the air inside the small chamber was sucked back into the ship, then when the lights on the panel turned blue, he operated the outer door and glided into the access tube, where gravity was minimal and air nonexistent. The engine bay and access tubes were open to the vacuum of space, although the openings were relatively small and the force-field deflection shielding kept drifting particles of space debris from getting inside and causing damage to the complex machinery. It was all pretty rugged though, able to withstand considerable punishment. Strength and durability were important in anything protecting fragile beings from the inhospitable conditions that existed between worlds.

Sensing the lack of gravity, Ianto’s boots automatically engaged and pulled his feet gently down to the tube’s narrow walkway, imparting a sense of being the right way up.

“Everything okay?” Jack’s voice came clearly through the receivers in Ianto’s helmet.

“Fine, Jack; I only just left the airlock. I’m beginning scans now.” 

Leaving his toolkit tethered just outside the airlock, so it wouldn’t get in his way during his initial scans, Ianto clipped his own safety line to a bracket, turned the scanner on, and began checking the systems set into the walls of the access tunnel, one section at a time. The fault, whatever it was, would probably be in one of the propulsion engines, but it made sense to be methodical in case the main problem was having a knock on effect in some of the other systems. The more information he could gather regarding whatever had caused the engine to shut down, the better equipped he’d be to fix it. 

“Section A, panels one through eighteen, all systems clear,” Ianto reported into his mic. Moving forward a couple of steps he began scanning again. “Section B, panels one through eighteen, all systems clear.” He made his way slowly down the tube, relaying his lack of findings to Jack as he went. “Section H, panel one, there’s a small vapour leak. Looks like there might have been a short in the wiring. That’ll need to be checked…” He stopped speaking.

“Ianto? You still there?” Jack’s voice cut through the silence.

“Of course I’m still here. Where else would I be?”

“You went quiet,” Jack accused.

“Yeah, sorry. Thought I felt some vibration. It’s probably nothing. I’m going to open this panel, see if I can find the source of the vapour leak.” Turning off his gravity boots, Ianto pulled himself back along the safety line to retrieve his toolkit, re-engaged the boots, and plodded his way back to Section H. Securing his toolkit within easy reach, he knelt to unfasten and remove the panel’s cover, clipping the slightly curved metal grille out of the way with a couple of short tethers before bending to examine the problem.

“How does it look?” Jack asked, sounding impatient.

“Can’t you see through the cameras?”

Silence for a second, then “Bugger. Forgot to turn mine on, sorry.”

“Jack! You get on my case every time I go quiet for a few seconds and you’re not even…” Ianto trailed off with an exasperated sigh. “Never mind. Looks like there has been a short, and I think I see why. A drop of… something seems to have dripped through the grille and oozed around a connection. Are you seeing this?”

“Yep, my camera’s on now. The damaged wiring will need replacing; I’ve made a note…” He trailed off. “What’s wrong?”

Ianto had stopped moving, one suited hand resting flat on the divider between panels. His head tilted to one side. “Getting that odd vibration again. I could understand it if the engines were running, but they aren’t and none of the other systems would cause a vibration strong enough to be felt through the suit. It’s weird, almost like there’s something moving in here, which is ridiculous. I’m in almost total vacuum.” Ianto shrugged. “I’ll check into it as I go. Okay, make a note of this; we’ll need a couple of T47 connectors and a piece of six-millimetre heavy-duty insulation tubing as well. A thirty-centimetre length should be enough; we can cut it to exact size when we make the repair. Hopefully it should keep the problem from recurring in the event of more drips.”

“Got it.”

“I can’t see any sign of a leak but we can double check when we make the other repairs. Might need to do a bit of soldering.” There was a soldering iron in the toolkit, with its own small power pack. “I would like to know what this substance is though, and where it came from if it’s not caused by a leak. I’ll take a sample for analysis. Most of it looks like it burned away when the wires shorted, but I think I can just…” Ianto scraped up what he could on the slender wand from a specimen tube. There were always a few in the tool kit in case samples of lubricants and other engine fluids needed to be taken to check for contamination caused by damage. Slipping the wand back into the small glass vial, Ianto snapped the cap back on and clipped the tube into a bracket on the inside of the toolkit’s lid, alongside the empties, sliding the protective cover back over them. “Should I put the panel back on here for now or leave it off?”

“Put it back; you might need the tethers somewhere else. I can bring some extras with me when I join you.”

“Good point.” There were a few others tethers of various lengths in the toolbox, but he might need all of them for tethering tools and other panels, depending on what other problems he came across. 

TBC


	2. Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ianto discovers something he definitely wasn’t expecting. Now he and Jack really have a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for spook_me 2018, using Torchwood, Monster From Space.

Ianto was just about to straighten up from locking the access panel in place when he felt that odd vibration again.

“Hello, that vibration’s back, and stronger than before. Weird. Where the hell is it coming from?” He started to turn as he rose to his feet, and that was when he saw it, although to be honest at this point he could hardly have missed it.

Jack saw it too and let fly with several choice swearwords, finishing with a question Ianto had no answer to. “What the fuck is that?”

Although still some twenty metres away, it almost filled the access tube, a hulking, indistinct black form. Ianto couldn’t make out much detail in the dim illumination provided by the widely spaced maintenance and repair light panels, which had automatically come on when he’d entered through the airlock, but it was moving towards him. He could tell that by the way it was blotting out the light from each panel it passed.

Not even trying to come up with an answer to Jack’s question, Ianto asked one of his own. “How can anything be alive in here?” Aside from small amounts of various gasses produced as by-products when the propulsion engines were operating, there was no atmosphere within the access tubes or the engine bay. “Nothing can live in a vacuum! Where did it even come from?”

“Ianto, hadn’t you better come back inside the ship?”

That would no doubt be the most sensible thing to do, but Ianto hesitated. It seemed highly likely that this unknown intruder was responsible for their propulsion engines cutting out, and if that was the case then it needed to be dealt with as soon as possible, before it could cause any more damage than it already had. “Not yet,” he said firmly, unclipping the laser cutter from its place on his belt. It had a full charge; maybe he could use it to drive the creature out. It wasn’t very effective at long range though so he’d have to let the thing, whatever it was, get a fair bit closer.

“Ianto… If you’re not coming in, I’m coming out there.”

“No, Jack, don’t be an idiot! There’s not much room in here; we’d just get in each other’s way!”

Jack swore again, knowing Ianto was right. “Okay, but I’m coming into the airlock. If you get in trouble I can haul you out of there with your safety line.” It was better than doing nothing.

“Fine, but no further.” 

The creature was still advancing slowly, not yet within range of the beam from Ianto’s helmet lamp, but he could make out some details now. It was vaguely insect-like, with short antennae sticking out near the top of a wrinkled, domed head. Two large, bulbous compound eyes bulged, one each side of the head, with a third, slit-pupiled eye set in the centre of its forehead, and two smaller eyes to each side of it. A peculiar vertical mouth, set directly beneath the central eye, contained two sharp fangs, one at the top and one at the bottom. He couldn’t see much beyond the creature’s head, there were too many shadows cast by the maintenance lights, but he could clearly see a pair of long, spindly, oddly jointed limbs, extending from somewhere behind the head, each ending in what he could only describe as a three-fingered hand, complete with claws, both at the tips of each finger and on the joints. Two short, stubby protrusions extending from the lower jaw were also tipped with what could either have been another claw, or a fang; it was impossible to be sure. 

“Are you seeing this thing?” Ianto asked, the tension he was feeling audible in his voice.

“Yeah, and I kinda wish I wasn’t.”

Ianto knew what his lover meant; this thing, whatever it was, looked like it had stepped straight out of the realm of nightmares, and he found himself wishing it would just go back there. He’d seen plenty of weird aliens, more than a few of them not particularly attractive to human eyes, but he didn’t like knowing that he was sharing the universe with monsters such as this one. Just looking at it gave him the creeps. He wasn’t sure whether it had legs or was just pulling itself along in zero gravity by its… front limbs, arms, whatever. Either way, it was able to move pretty fast, judging by the way it abruptly surged towards him in a distinctly menacing manner; it didn’t look like it just wanted to say hello or ask for directions.

“Ianto! Don’t just stand there; do something!” Jack yelled.

Ianto jerked himself out of the disbelieving half trance he’d fallen into, raised the laser cutter, and fired at the creature’s… he supposed ‘face’ was the least inaccurate term.

It had no effect, the beam failing to leave even so much as a scorch mark on the leathery black skin. The monster kept on coming, baring its twin fangs in a silent snarl, reaching towards him with its clawed hands in a kind of dreamlike slow motion that was no doubt due to the lack of gravity.

Ducking down, Ianto fired the laser a second time, which had no more effect than the first. For a brief moment he considered trying to shoot its arms, but they were so thin and spindly it would be much too easy to miss, and cause damage to the ship’s systems instead. He couldn’t start a fire thanks to the absence of oxygen, but he could slice through panels and melt wiring, and that level of damage could take weeks to repair, rebuilding whole banks of monitoring equipment and power relays.

All that went through Ianto’s mind in a split second as he readjusted his aim, firing directly into the creature’s mouth instead. That made it falter, jerking back a little before lunging forwards again.

“Ianto!” Jack’s panicked voice came through his suit’s comm. unit clearly. “Get out of there!”

“Not while this thing is still alive!” Ianto snapped back. This was war! If the worst happened and he got killed somehow, he’d come back, but these spacesuits were pretty much indestructible, and now he had the beginnings of an idea. This time he aimed directly at the central eye.

The creature flailed, pulling back as its eye exploded, spraying viscous goo everywhere, splattering the interior of the access tube. Ianto pressed the advantage, moving towards it and taking out the smaller eyes one after another with four short bursts from the laser. The creature was definitely trying to retreat now; that was encouraging.

Ianto felt a presence behind him and knew it was Jack, come to join the battle despite having been told not to. It was just as well he had since the charge in Ianto’s laser cutter was almost depleted and if he stopped firing it would give the monster the chance to mount another attack, regaining lost ground. 

Leaning to one side and aiming past Ianto’s right arm, Jack sent a burst from his own laser into one of the creature’s compound eyes. More globules of gunk floated around the interior of the tube and Ianto grimaced; that was going to take some cleaning up! It didn’t matter right now though because it looked like they were winning the battle.

The monster kept backing away while Jack and Ianto, pressed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow tube, continued to take pot shots at any parts of the creature they could, aiming primarily at the already ruined eyes. Once Jack was there, Ianto had been able to slap a fresh power cube into his laser cutter, and he had two more spares. Jack was still on his first but would need to re-load shortly.

Still forcing the invader backwards, they followed it out of the access tube into the bay containing the ship’s main engines, more grateful than ever for their gravity boots. Their safety lines continued to unspool behind them, but without the boots they would have been in freefall, which would have caused difficulties with aiming. As it was, they were still firmly anchored to solid ground while their foe was now adrift.

Snapping fresh power cubes into their lasers, the two immortals redoubled their efforts. They couldn’t let this thing escape, not now. What if it survived and came back? Maybe brought some friends along with it? One creature they could handle, maybe, but more than that, at a time when they were unable to manoeuvre their ship away from an attack? When they were helpless and needed to focus their efforts on repairing their disabled spacecraft? They’d be sitting ducks!

Neither man had much firepower remaining; they needed to end this quickly. Jack had brought with him Ianto’s toolkit and a spare safety line, and now he fastened a full tube of quick setting sealant gel to one end of the line before throwing it as hard as he could at the monster. He grinned savagely as it took the bait. How it was able to manoeuvre in freefall they couldn’t quite make out, but it twisted its thin, legless, segmented body and lunged for the tube, snapping at it, sinking both fangs into it and biting down hard. The gel oozed thickly from the punctured tube, welling up around the thing’s fangs.

Almost immediately it realised its mistake and started clawing at its mouth, and at the safety line, with its taloned hands, its body writhing at it tried to tear itself free, to no avail. The gel was designed to quickly plug small hull beaches had already set fast. Jack had clipped the other end of the safety line to a convenient bracket before throwing the tube; now he started to reel the line in, hand over hand, drawing the monster ever closer. As soon as it was within range, Ianto opened fire with his laser cutter on its one remaining eye; not a short burst this time, he simply pressed the trigger all the way in and held it down, searing right through the eye and deep into the monster’s head until it finally exploded from the heat.

It was over. 

“If it’s not dead now then it should be,” Ianto muttered, clipping the laser cutter back onto his belt; it was lucky the final assault had worked because it was drained dry and he was all out of power cubes.

He viewed the grisly scene with a sense of gloom; the remains of the monstrous space insect floated weightlessly on the end of the safety line like some grotesque balloon, its forelimbs dangling limply. Bits of alien floated all over the engine bay; Ianto had thought clearing up the mess in the access tube would be bad enough, but this was going to be a bitch. 

“It’s dead,” Jack said firmly. “Messy, but definitely dead.”

“Good.” Messy though it was, in these circumstances a dead monster was infinitely preferable to a living one. Ianto wasn’t normally a vindictive man, but even he had his limits. “What’re we going to do with the body though?”

“Good question. Can’t really leave it here, not with bits breaking off it. They could get stuck in the engines and cause even more damage and we’ve already got more than enough to deal with.” Standing there surveying the mess, Jack gave the matter some thought, weighing up options, then… “I suppose we could stuff what’s left of it in an empty cargo pod and jettison it.”

“Right, and just leave if floating around out there for someone else to run into.”

“Blow it up after we jettison it?”

Ianto gave a half shrug. “That idea has merit. As for the rest of it… I suppose we’ll just have to scoop the bits up as best we can.”

They spent the next couple of hours doing just that, a tedious and disgusting task made a little more enjoyable because it gave them the rare opportunity to use jet packs. They turned the whole thing into a macabre contest to see who could collect the most bits. Shoving the last scraps of the monster into the cargo pod, they sealed it tight and manoeuvred it back out past the force shields that protected the engine bay, where they tethered it to the outer hull to deal with later. 

Finally they were able to investigate the engine problems that had started the whole escapade. It didn’t take long to find the cause, a mass of sticky strands, radiating out from a leathery ovoid with a rip down its side, were clogging up the works, affecting the engines’ efficiency and causing them to overheat. They would have shut down automatically before the temperature could reach critical levels and cause a catastrophic explosion.

“Well would you look at that!” Jack tugged on one of the strands and it twanged like elastic. “Strong stuff.”

“It’s a bit like spider web.”

“That was no spider.” That much had been obvious.

“No,” Ianto agreed. “More like… maybe the larval form of some kind of space bug.”

“Now that’s a charming thought.”

Even though Ianto couldn’t see Jack’s face he could easily imagine his lover’s disgusted expression. Not that he blamed Jack; he felt the same way, although he did wonder if they’d just killed something that was simply trying to survive in a very inhospitable place. It was unlikely they’d ever know.

While they remained out on the rim though, they would have to take extra precautions because somewhere, maybe back on the lifeless planet or on one of the asteroids they’d surveyed, something must have found its way into the engine compartment of their ship and laid a single, large egg. The burgeoning life inside it had grown, developed, and the creature that had eventually hatched had found its way into the engine access tube. Perhaps it had been looking for somewhere to undergo the next stage of its development into whatever it might eventually have become, but that was just speculation. 

What was important was to make sure it never happened again. The damage to the engines and associated systems was going to take at least two weeks to repair, and they’d need to check there weren’t any more of these not so little surprises lurking in any hidden corners. One was more than enough.

But first, it was time to go back inside their ship, plug their spacesuit power packs in to recharge, take a shower, get something to eat, and catch a few hours’ sleep. They had a lot of work ahead of them.

The End


End file.
